Post by kas on Jun 8, 2011 16:59:10 GMT -5
This is a scam!
This one has been going around for awhile and still catches people falling for it!
www.courier-journal.com/article/20110605/FEATURES/306050005/1010/My-Digital-Life-Facebook-stalking-scam-lures-you-into-web-shame?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Features|s
nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2010/07/23/viewed-facebook-profile-care/
Omigod! I knew my ex was stalking me! Visit this page to find out who is looking at your profile!
This one has been going around for awhile and still catches people falling for it!
My Digital Life | Facebook 'stalking' scam lures you into web of shame
Written by
Tamara Ikenberg
June 5th 2011
I saw the toxic post at the top of a friend's page. I can't remember exactly what it said, but it was something to the effect of: “Omigod! I knew my ex was stalking me! Visit this page to find out who is looking at your profile!”
Every Facebook user has been subject to this exploitative scam at one time or another; the scam claims it can show you who is looking at your page and how often.
They show up in a variety of forms, just like Satan. Sometimes they're deviously disguised as a personal message sent by a friend. Other times they just plaster themselves on your page.
They make your pulse pound for a second until you remember that Facebook clearly states in its terms of service that there is no way to find out who visits your page and how often and that any post or other insidious app that claims it will reveal your page-stalkers is a trick playing on your fear and narcissism in order to access your information.
What would Facebook have to gain from revealing profile peeping Toms?
If Mark Zuckerberg made it possible, paranoia would rule. People would use Facebook far less often and stay on for shorter durations if not abandon it altogether.
The unchecked, binocular-free voyeurism Facebook offers is one of the most, if not the most, awesome things about it.
Anyway, there was something about that particular post that made my bad friends — boredom, narcissism and self-destructive curiosity — brainwash me into thinking that maybe this was the real deal in a digital sea of frauds; the true stalker-finder that would set Facebook aflame with shame.
Shouldn't I at least give it a try? I knew succumbing would most likely open a Pandora's spam box of annoyance for me. But I didn't realize that annoyance would also spread to every single one of my Facebook friends.
I stupidly went to the page, which, of course, demanded that I “like” it, before I take advantage of its magical stalker-revealing powers. Despite the fleet of red flags that rose in my rational mind, I clicked on it.
There was no turning back. The page had me in its clutches.
I instructed it to find my peeping Toms and was presented with a screen of blurred faces of Facebook members with the supposed number of times they visit my page next to them.
Going in, I wasn't expecting any big ego-boosting surprises. I was pretty sure one of my friends' moms and some creepy old guys were my most ardent admirers.
Anyway, the blurs never cleared. Plus, it tried to squeeze more information out of me, like my cell number, before giving me the final results, which, it was now clear, did not exist.
Big surprise; another lying piece of app. Feeling weak of character for falling for it, I fled from the page and resumed the stalking I'd interrupted to test it.
Minutes later I started getting posts and messages from my friends telling me my account had been hacked. Turns out the post that started this whole mess had popped up on every one of my friends' walls.
And even worse, it made it look as if I had personally posted the corny, conceited post. The evil app was even instant-messaging all of my friends under my name, trying to lure them to the poison page.
It was out of control, like a Mogwai fed after midnight. This Gremlin-like app was making me look like the biggest jerk on Facebook. And I had unleashed it.
Not all of my friends gave me the benefit of the doubt and suspected the hacking. The ones I don't know very well, or at all, probably thought I was a pathetic spam artist.
Oh well. I couldn't very well visit every single one of their walls and erase the post by hand. I have way too many friends for that.
I posted an apology on my own wall for unwittingly invading everyone's walls and peace of mind. I kind of wished someone else would commit a Facebook faux pas quickly to make my mistake seem like old news.
I will never enable another stalker-finder scam. And I will guiltlessly keep on creepin' on my favorite folks' Facebook walls.
That's the way it's meant to be.
Reporter Tamara Ikenberg can be reached at (502) 582-4174.
Written by
Tamara Ikenberg
June 5th 2011
I saw the toxic post at the top of a friend's page. I can't remember exactly what it said, but it was something to the effect of: “Omigod! I knew my ex was stalking me! Visit this page to find out who is looking at your profile!”
Every Facebook user has been subject to this exploitative scam at one time or another; the scam claims it can show you who is looking at your page and how often.
They show up in a variety of forms, just like Satan. Sometimes they're deviously disguised as a personal message sent by a friend. Other times they just plaster themselves on your page.
They make your pulse pound for a second until you remember that Facebook clearly states in its terms of service that there is no way to find out who visits your page and how often and that any post or other insidious app that claims it will reveal your page-stalkers is a trick playing on your fear and narcissism in order to access your information.
What would Facebook have to gain from revealing profile peeping Toms?
If Mark Zuckerberg made it possible, paranoia would rule. People would use Facebook far less often and stay on for shorter durations if not abandon it altogether.
The unchecked, binocular-free voyeurism Facebook offers is one of the most, if not the most, awesome things about it.
Anyway, there was something about that particular post that made my bad friends — boredom, narcissism and self-destructive curiosity — brainwash me into thinking that maybe this was the real deal in a digital sea of frauds; the true stalker-finder that would set Facebook aflame with shame.
Shouldn't I at least give it a try? I knew succumbing would most likely open a Pandora's spam box of annoyance for me. But I didn't realize that annoyance would also spread to every single one of my Facebook friends.
I stupidly went to the page, which, of course, demanded that I “like” it, before I take advantage of its magical stalker-revealing powers. Despite the fleet of red flags that rose in my rational mind, I clicked on it.
There was no turning back. The page had me in its clutches.
I instructed it to find my peeping Toms and was presented with a screen of blurred faces of Facebook members with the supposed number of times they visit my page next to them.
Going in, I wasn't expecting any big ego-boosting surprises. I was pretty sure one of my friends' moms and some creepy old guys were my most ardent admirers.
Anyway, the blurs never cleared. Plus, it tried to squeeze more information out of me, like my cell number, before giving me the final results, which, it was now clear, did not exist.
Big surprise; another lying piece of app. Feeling weak of character for falling for it, I fled from the page and resumed the stalking I'd interrupted to test it.
Minutes later I started getting posts and messages from my friends telling me my account had been hacked. Turns out the post that started this whole mess had popped up on every one of my friends' walls.
And even worse, it made it look as if I had personally posted the corny, conceited post. The evil app was even instant-messaging all of my friends under my name, trying to lure them to the poison page.
It was out of control, like a Mogwai fed after midnight. This Gremlin-like app was making me look like the biggest jerk on Facebook. And I had unleashed it.
Not all of my friends gave me the benefit of the doubt and suspected the hacking. The ones I don't know very well, or at all, probably thought I was a pathetic spam artist.
Oh well. I couldn't very well visit every single one of their walls and erase the post by hand. I have way too many friends for that.
I posted an apology on my own wall for unwittingly invading everyone's walls and peace of mind. I kind of wished someone else would commit a Facebook faux pas quickly to make my mistake seem like old news.
I will never enable another stalker-finder scam. And I will guiltlessly keep on creepin' on my favorite folks' Facebook walls.
That's the way it's meant to be.
Reporter Tamara Ikenberg can be reached at (502) 582-4174.
www.courier-journal.com/article/20110605/FEATURES/306050005/1010/My-Digital-Life-Facebook-stalking-scam-lures-you-into-web-shame?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Features|s
nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2010/07/23/viewed-facebook-profile-care/